2 Cambodians arrested for trafficking 10 organ donors to India for illegal kidney transplants

Two Cambodia nationals have been arrested for allegedly trafficking at least 10 organ donors to India for illegal kidney transplants, police said on Friday (26 May).

According to a Straits Times report, a man and a woman, both residents from the capital of Cambodia, were arrested on Wednesday. Keo Thea, the city's chief of anti-human trafficking police said that the two have at least ten cases of "kidney trafficking" over the past year.

He added, "The suspects paid Cambodian donors US$5,800 (£4502.54) for their kidneys and then charged patients more than US$40,000 for the transplants. The kidney transplants were performed in India". The suspects have confessed to the crime.

In 2015, three Cambodians were sentenced to between 10 and 15 years in jail in the country's first kidney trafficking case.

They had convinced the poor people to sell their organs. These organs were given to wealthy fellow citizen who were undergoing dialysis in Thailand.

There is a huge demand for organ transplant, especially kidney. The billion-dollar organ black market is fuelled by a shortage of these organs and a soaring number of sick patients waiting for it.

The cases of illegal organ donation go unreported due to the poverty of the donors.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) some 10,000 black market transplants are carried out every year, a problem that frequently involves international crime.